The Vatican

Here on APR Notebook, I've invited you to listen into my chats with actors and authors. Those talks are pretty light. Then there was my conversation with Alex Drueke, who spent 105 days as a POW in the hands of Russian forces after he volunteered to fight for Ukraine. That one was tough to listen to, and fair warning, here's another one. But hear me out. Genocide has been going on in part of the African nation of Sudan for years. The region I'm talking about is roughly the size of Spain. It's called Darfur. An estimated 2 million people have been killed there, but for some of the survivors, there has been justice, and an attorney who hails from Mobile made it possible. Kathryn Lee Boyd argued the case against the French bank BNP Paribas. It was accused of funding the mass killings in Darfur. Boyd won, and she's my guest next on APR Notebook.

Alabama’s Catholic community is celebrating the selection of Pope Leo the fourteenth. But, it was another Pope Leo who made a substantial impact on the state. The website Encyclopedia of Alabama says it was Pope Leo the twelfth who helped spread Catholicism in the state in 1825.